Four arrested for selling fake Garba passes in Borivali

Four persons arrested in Mumbai for selling fake Garba passes for the Falguni Pathak show, duping a man and his friends of ₹5.17 lakh.

Mumbai: Four persons were arrested on Thursday for allegedly duping a 20-year-old man and his friends of ₹5.17 lakh by selling fake Garba passes for the Falguni Pathak show in Borivali.

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The accused have been identified as Avinash Surve, 24, a hotel owner, Shripal Bagadia, 38, a businessman, Sushil Tirlotkar, 30, a driver and Santosh Gumbre, 35.

According to the complainant Nihar Shrayas Modi, a resident of Thakur Village, Kandivali, he along with his parents wanted to go for the Falguni Pathak Garba nights at Chikoowadi in Borivali West. However, the passes were ₹4,800 and he could not afford them. On October 10, Modi learnt from his friend Shrayas Shah that one of his acquaintances had passes which were available at ₹3,300 per person.

“Modi called up Shah’s acquaintance, Vishal Shah, and said that he needed 156 passes for him and his friends. Shah told Modi that he would send a man to collect the cash and then he would send Modi an address from where he could pick up the passes,” an officer from MHB Colony police station said.

On last Thursday, Modi collected ₹5.17 lakh from his friends and reached the spot near the Western Express Highway in Borivali where a man arrived in an auto. “He had a white handkerchief on his head and steel rods next to him in the auto. He collected the cash from us and left in the same auto,” Modi said in his statement.

Shah then called Modi and asked him to go to Green Building number 2 in MHB colony and collect the passes. When Modi went to MHB, he searched the building but could not find the address. Modi called up Shah who had switched off his phone. Modi then realised that he had been cheated and approached the police.

After registering the case, PSI Deepak Hinde from MHB colony police station got the CDRs of 36 mobile numbers which were active at the time Modi received a call to pick up the passes. “We studied the data as the accused who had picked up the cash had changed four autos to throw us off the track before dropping off the cash to the main accused,” said Hinde.

Ajay Bansal, deputy commissioner of police (zone 11) said that the officers got a number from 2016 in the CDR of one of the numbers of a man who was in touch with the accused. The police officers tracked the man and through him, they reached the accused and arrested him. The officers then arrested the other three men.

“We have arrested the four and produced them before the court. We are now finding out how many more people they have cheated,” Sudhir Kudalkar, senior police inspector of MHB Colony police station, said.